When I started Turkish lessons in London a few years back, a fellow student - Elizabeth - turned out to be pretty high up in the hierarchy of the Royal Ballet. So, when I told her that Jane used to draw dancers in rehearsal at Pineapple Studios, she asked if we’d like to have tickets for final dress rehearsals at Covent Garden.

Jane was delighted, of course; and, a few weeks later, there we were, in a box, Jane with sketch pad, pencils and charcoal at the ready, when suddenly the house lights went off and she found herself in almost complete darkness.

At Pineapple it had been very different. Dazzlingly bright lights and so close to the action that she was occasionally spattered with dancers’ sweat.  Her drawings of that period were thought through, each dancer clearly in his or her own space.  Here, at Covent Garden, she began to paint what turned out to be almost an essence of dance, furiously dashed off with hardly a glance down at the pad.

This last month she showed 6 framed drawings, with another half dozen on mounts in a display rack, at the Off The Wall exhibition at our local museum, in Aylesbury.  A provincial venue, to be sure, but good enough for the likes of Paula Rego to show her work.

Visitors, from old-time museum hands to schoolchildren, were fascinated by the drawings. Nine pieces were sold, excellent timing with Christmas looming. 

Click here for more drawings, all done from a box at Covent Garden